Wednesday, May 23, 2012

"Let Us Make A Name For Ourselves"

In the
generations that followed the Great Flood, there was a tower built in the land
between the rivers, the land of Shinar, perhaps better known as
Mesapotamia.This was the Cradle of
Civilization, located between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the area of
modern day Iraq.It was there that men became
quite advanced.Hebrews Chapter 11
reveals the hope of Abraham.He was
looking forward to a city "whose architect and builder is God."
(1)But men became impatient waiting for the city
God would build so they took upon themselves the task of building a city.It would be a city built, not to bring glory
to God, but to satisfy the desires of the human flesh.

"Let usmake a name for ourselves", they said. (2) Has that not been the theme of man down
through the ages? I walked into our new
multi-million dollar public library in Columbus, Georgia recently. Near the entrance I saw a plaque with the
names of major contributors to this community structure. It is fundamental to a race of fallen men to have
an urge to "make a name for ourselves." It is the basic tenet of humanism; stealing glory
from God and elevating man.

The Tower of
Babel was a religious tower. The purpose
of its construction was to reach God.
But their motive was corrupted by their desire to make a name for
themselves. There is a corner stone on
many churches I've seen. "Erected
in the year ________, to God be glory".
As the years pass, the glory of God fades from the institution while the
centrality of man emerges. In a God-centered
church the purpose of music is to bring glory to God, in a humanistic church
the purpose o music is to entertain people.
A God-centered church has a God-centered pastor whose primary goal is to
preach for the glory of God. A
humanistic church wallows in spiritually shallow waters with a pastor who is
often humorous and can entertain people with catchy quotes and funny stories.

Humanism has
so invaded our culture that God has been relegated to a back burner. We are not atheistic, atheism leads to a despair
that few can endure for any length of time.
Many in the American culture are
more interested in calling the shots when it comes to God. God is placed on a shelf to be reached for at
our own convenience. Our "don't
call us, we'll call you" attitude toward God indicates that we think
ourselves more important than he. The
words of the Psalmist are foreign and confusing to us, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God." (3) Our
callings to God are now limited to 911
calls. We have little thirst for God but
we are quick to pull him off the shelf if we are experiencing a crisis in our
lives.

I have read
recently of three people in the state of Georgia who are suffering from an
infection called Necrotizing fasciitis.
(4) One of those is Aimee Copeland (5) who has had
one leg amputated at the hip and her fingers removed in an attempt to save her
life. This is a horrifying disease for which there is no cure. Humanism as infected our culture and the
church like a flesh eating disease. The
spirit of the church is being consumed by a philosophy that makes the happiness
of man a priority and conveniently ignores the glory of God.

Liberalism
in the church flowered in the mid-1800's.
Charles Darwin explained away the role of God in creation. Humanist philosophers taught that the chief
end of man's existence was his own happiness.
Religious liberals embraced the cancer of humanism when they declared
their uncertainty about the existence of God, heaven or hell. Their unbelief made it impossible for them to
offer any hope beyond our earthly existence so they began to address the
happiness of man in this world. They
offered a watered down version of Christianity that focused on the happiness of
man in this life. The doctrines of sin,
eternal life and hell were avoided and the focus was on "Your Best LifeNow." (6)

A movement
arose in answer to the liberals of that day and they called themselves
fundamentalists. But humanism is not
selective in its choice of victims and fundamentalism also became a victim of
the deadly virus of humanism.
Fundamentalists grew as a conservative movement because of their common
beliefs in holding to the traditional teachings of the word of God. They defined themselves as those who belief
in the divinity of Christ, the creation, the holiness of God and the
authenticity of the Bible. If you
believed in this list of essentials you were labeled a conservative
fundamentalist.

In
successive generations, fundamentalists began to teach that one might be saved
by simply giving mental assent to a list of basic scriptural doctrines. The measure by which one became a Christian
was not the confessing of sin and experiencing a Holy Spirit- induced soul
cleansing. The evidence of one's
Christianity was a simple vocal affirmative to a few basic questions regarding
the nature of God. A radical change in
one's lifestyle was no longer associated with true Christianity. A card carrying Christian was no longer
expected to demonstrate righteous living or freedom from the bondage of
sin. Experiential Christianity was
thrown out the door in favor of a simple "I believe."

Liberalism
set about focusing on this life instead of the next life. The assortment of social programs developed
to improve the lives of the masses are too numerous to mention. Great declarations were made about
eliminating poverty, drugs and war. But
their utopian goal was shattered when the First World War erupted and men set
about to destroy one another. The War to
End All Wars was followed by another horrendous war and men began to question
the idea that the heart of man is essentially good. Then men proved how short their memories are
and liberalism made another great comeback.
L.B. Johnson declared his War on Poverty. The flower children of the 1960's demanded the
end to all war. Liberalism continues its
march through the modern age. Al Gore
seems nearly insane and certainly delusional in his attempt to create a better
earth. Our first lady is strongly
dedicated to manipulating the diets of our children.

The liberal
says that man must be made happy while he lives on this earth. The fundamentalist says that man must be made
happy in the afterlife. Both have
succumbed to the primary teaching of humanism:
the happiness of man. When a
fundamentalist preacher declares that a person ought to accept Christ so that
he can escape the fires of hell, or so he can live in eternal bliss, is he not
focusing on the humanistic idea of the happiness of man? Should men not accept Christ because he "deservesto receive the reward of his suffering." (7)

Christ did
not walk away from the glorious splendor of heaven and submit to the humility
of humanity solely to make us happy.
Christ did not drag his cross to Golgotha and allow the Romans to pierce
his hands with spikes and his side with a sword only to make us happy. Believing that or preaching that is replacing
God with man as the central purpose of our salvation. Does this not border on blasphemy? Did Christ
not go to the cross and die for men because it was the only way men might be
saved and thus bring glory to God. It
wasn't so much about saving us from hell or making us happy in heaven, it was
all about bring glory to God.

How many
today get saved as a way of making a deal with God? It is true that salvation comes with benefits
but the benefits are a byproduct. Modern
day ministers will one day be accountable for the steady stream of lies that
come from their pulpits. We are no
longer being told that sin corrupts the soul.
We are no longer told that the grace of God can bring deliverance to
hungry hearts. Instead, we are being fed
a steady stream of heresy. We are being
told that if we accept Christ he will make us millionaires, he will cure our
diseases and dedicate himself to our happiness.
We are being sold a bill of goods.

Humanism
teaches us to look for human solutions to human problems. We are the most over-medicated society in
history. We run to counselors instead of
running to Christ. We read self-help
books written by pop-psychologists instead of turning to the word of God. If we would only turn to the right source we
could find a cure to alcoholism, to drug addiction, to sex addiction and to
dysfunctional families. But all of this
is frosting on the cake. The true motive
for submitting to Christ should not be "to make a name for ourselves"
or for our own happiness, it should be because doing so is the only possible
way an earthly soul can bring glory to a deserving God.